Alkane containing in petroleum is used for various applications after purification via fractional distillation. Furthermore, alkane is not only used widely as a raw material in chemical industry, but also used as a major ingredient of a diesel fuel obtained from petroleum. An example of biotechnology for producing alkane is disclosed in Patent Document 1. Patent Document 1 discloses an attempt of synthesizing alkane with recombinant Escherichia coli introduced a blue-green alga-derived alkane synthase gene and an acyl-CoA reductase gene.
Furthermore, Patent Document 2 discloses a microalga (Pseudochoricystis ellipsoidea) capable of producing C10-25 hydrocarbon. Moreover, Patent Document 3 discloses technology for synthesizing alkane using yeast having fatty acid aldehyde decarbonylase activity to catalyze the conversion of aldehyde into alkane. Furthermore, Non-Patent Document 1 discloses a method for synthesizing alkane from aldehyde using enzyme P450.
Meanwhile, Patent Document 4 discloses a method for biosynthesis of α,ω alkane diol by culturing recombinant Escherichia coli expressing a CYP153-alkane-1-monooxygenase gene, a ferredoxin gene, and a ferredoxin reductase gene in a medium containing alkane or alkane mono-ol.
As described above, whereas recombinant microorganisms expressing alkane synthase genes and microorganisms capable of synthesizing alkane are known, their alkane productivity could not have been sufficient.